Chana Porter is a novelist, playwright, teacher, MacDowell fellow, and cofounder of The Octavia Project, a STEM and writing program for girls and trans and nonbinary youth that uses speculative fiction to envision greater possibilities for our world.

Her debut novel The Seep was an ABA Indie Next Pick, Open Letters Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Book of 2020, a 2021 Lambda Literary Award Finalist, and a Times (UK) Best Sci-fi Book of 2021. As a playwright, her work has been produced and developed at New Georges, Playwrights Horizons, Cherry Lane, Dixon Place, Target Margin, and many more. She was writer-in-residence at The Catastrophe Theatre in Houston, Texas from 2017-2019. Chana is currently adapting Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed into an opera with the composer Ted Hearne.

She lives in Los Angeles. Pronouns: she/they

As an educator, Chana has taught courses in playwriting and fiction at University of Houston, Pace University, Sarah Lawrence, and many more institutions. Chana has designed courses of various lengths (an hour, a day, several weeks) which use somatic writing exercises to enable the student to write surprising new work with speed and clarity.

Interested in booking Chana for as a guest artist or for a speaking engagement?

Email chanawritesplays@gmail.com to inquire. Available in person or on zoom.